/ NEW REVIEW: TrangoWorld Yosemite Jeans

"Classic blue jeans are not just for cowboys like the American climber Ron Kauk," says Mick Ryan. Kauk was wearing 501's over two decades ago for climbing in, as well as for hanging out in the Camp 4 parking lot and when splitting firewood at his home for the cold Yosemite winters.

In reply to UKC Gear: Go to Bi-mart and buy a pair of Rustler carpenter jeans $8 they are great or any paint shop and get a pair of "Dickies" $15 with reinforced knees , I'm sure that's where Ron does his shopping.

Vain people wear jeans to climb in purely as a way of saying "Look at me. I'm so good that I can do this even wearing something offering rubbish freedom of movement." The funny thing is that manufacturers have bought into this by making stretchy jeans so that the posers can still pose to those not in the know but without the actual hindrance of traditional jeans. One of the more amusing bit of consumerism in climbing.

> (In reply to Robert Durran)
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> Leggings? It's 2012 not 1984 Jeans are the way forward!

If so, only because fashion victims are gullible enough fork out money for these branded stretchy things - admit it, they are not proper jeans. Leggings are perfect for climbing; I don't care what date it is or who is laughing behind my back.

Your argument (which was codswallop to start with) somewhat falls down when the people wearing the jeans to climb in are massive punters like me. I wear them to climb in most of the time because they're comfy, better for wiping my shoes on than thinner trousers and much less prone to ripping when I'm flailing around in some off width horrorshow.

Then again I am a preening primadonna, just ask any of my climbing partners...

> I wear them to climb in most of the time because they're comfy, better for wiping my shoes on than thinner trousers and much less prone to ripping when I'm flailing around in some off width horrorshow.

You would pay for overpriced fashion trousres and then wipe your feet on them and grovel up chimneys in them?

"Look at me, I'm so good..." Fails as an argument when you obviously aren't any good and therefore aren't doing anything worth looking at.

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> You would pay for overpriced fashion trousres and then wipe your feet on them and grovel up chimneys in them?

No. I would pay for some hard wearing, comfy trousers to go climbing in. What's a 'fashion trouser' though? It doesn't sound like you're in any better a position than me to judge, since you're bumbling around in womanswear.

In reply to Robert Durran: Have you watched the video of Ondra onsighting the 8c+ yet Robert? His jeans seem to work ok for him! ;-)

More seriously haven't most people found that once you put a harness on, most trousers work fine for climbing in? I've been using an old pair of cords this summer and they've been great.

For bouldering you really find the limits of many types of trousers, even supposedly climbing-specific ones. But the harness leg loops somehow pull trousers up around the knees meaning you never get any drag there.

> (In reply to Robert Durran) Have you watched the video of Ondra onsighting the 8c+ yet Robert? His jeans seem to work ok for him! ;-)

No, not yet, but looking forward to it (I just hope the editing isn't as appallingly vomit inducing as that last video of the place - Ondra's entourage usually produce graet videos though). I assume Ondra is wearing the stretchy jeans which aren't actually Jeans at all, but just look like them. So is he just posing about, trying to con us into thinking he is so good that he can onsight 8c+ in trousers like stiff cardboard? Probably not; even I would sell out and wear stretchy "jeans" them if someone payed me enough money to do so!

>
> More seriously haven't most people found that once you put a harness on, most trousers work fine for climbing in? I've been using an old pair of cords this summer and they've been great.

The harness and rack is the problem with most trousers. Any sort of stiff waist band is uncomfortable and any pockets get caught on krabs. This is why I wear exclusively leggings and shorts with no pockets.

> For bouldering you really find the limits of many types of trousers, even supposedly climbing-specific ones.

I disagree. Without a harness, the above problems don't exist and anything not impeding freedom of movement would be ok I imagine

Either you're a cack-handed buffoon, or you're doing something very, very wrong. In 10 years of climbing I have never once found the pockets of any climbing trousers get in the way of anything. How gaping are your pockets?

> (In reply to Robert Durran)
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> Either you're a cack-handed buffoon, or you're doing something very, very wrong. In 10 years of climbing I have never once found the pockets of any climbing trousers get in the way of anything.

Well I have. So maybe I am a cack-handed buffoon - quite possibly. But I've found a way round it. I can set off on a big lead knowing that that crucial piece of gear when I am pumped won't be clipped to my trousers, resulting in faailure or even death; I find this a great comfort.

> (In reply to victim of mathematics)
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> Well I have. So maybe I am a cack-handed buffoon - quite possibly. But I've found a way round it. I can set off on a big lead knowing that that crucial piece of gear when I am pumped won't be clipped to my trousers, resulting in faailure or even death; I find this a great comfort.

> I assume Ondra is wearing the stretchy jeans which aren't actually Jeans at all,

No idea what type of jeans he's wearing. You can get plenty of stretchy jeans from high street shops Robert. I'm not saying the skinny jean hipster look is the right one for you, but you never know! Do you wear specs? If so mixing the skinny jeans with some thick horn-rimmed glasses and some ironic facial hair could be a completely new look for you? People will be presuming you're from Brooklyn in no time at all.

> The harness and rack is the problem with most trousers. Any sort of stiff waist band is uncomfortable and any pockets get caught on krabs. This is why I wear exclusively leggings and shorts with no pockets.

Can't say I've ever noted that problem. I have though miss-clipped on to the hem of my t-shirt if it's loose and sticking out under my harness. That's annoying. If I'm trying something hard for me I try to remember to tuck my t-shirt in to my troos before starting off. But can't say I've ever managed to clip something to my trouser pockets.

Robert should try "jeggings". Then he'll get the wonderful body hugging feeling of the legging and the fashion benefits of the faux-denim! Also I understand that their pockets are painted on, so no risk of death!

> (In reply to Robert Durran)
> You can get plenty of stretchy jeans from high street shops Robert.

Indeed. My default non-work wear is stretchy black jeans from Asda at under a tenner a pair (with the added satisfaction of knowing that I'm keeping a Philippino child in gainful employment). I wouldn't wear them climbing though because, as I said, I would need to be well paid to look like a posing knob.

> Do you wear specs?

Don't get me started on glasses. Well, ok you have, so here goes:
The evil purveyors of "fashion" (masquerading to the naive/stupid as art) change the shape of glasses every couple of years and then subtly promote bullying so that, if you havn't thrown away perfectly optically adequate glasses and spent at least a hundred pounds on a new pair of the curreently "in" shape, you get laughed at by pointless morons behind your back, or even to your face. Even I (and I'm not proud of this) succumb to this sort of pressure.

> If so mixing the skinny jeans with some thick horn-rimmed glasses and some ironic facial hair could be a completely new look for you? People will be presuming you're from Brooklyn in no time at all.

Do you think all those American climbers with ridiculous designer goatees are actually being ironic? I had always assumed they were just complete dicks.

> I love these jeans - not only functional but they also have the bonus effect of making me look dead cool.

Ooh. Very clever aren't you!

There is, however, a diffenence between wearing something that that you think looks cool (but really makes you look like a knob), and wearing something that you know makes you lools like a knob, but not caring because it's functional.

In reply to TobyA: I'd just like to contribute at this stage that Robert's wearing of leggings is really a giant leap forward in fashion from his previous favourite wall attire of (very)short shorts, sweatbands and vest top.

He may not be at the jean wearing stage yet, but he's on his way down the slippery slope.

> Can't say I've ever noted that problem. I have though miss-clipped on to the hem of my t-shirt if it's loose and sticking out under my harness. That's annoying. If I'm trying something hard for me I try to remember to tuck my t-shirt in to my troos before starting off. But can't say I've ever managed to clip something to my trouser pockets.

As you say Iv never had the jeans clipping problem, but I have had the t-shirt problem a few times!

> (In reply to TobyA) I'd just like to contribute at this stage that Robert's wearing of leggings is really a giant leap forward in fashion from his previous favourite wall attire of (very)short shorts, sweatbands and vest top.

Hang on Neil. I only wear leggings (well holed, retired from outdoors, powerstetch) when it is exceptionally cold at Ratho. Being dead hard, this is really only a handful of times per year. I do, however, wear baggy Asda tracksuit bottoms over my shorts and harness to belay when it's chilly.

My Marks and Spencer pyjama shorts (honestly the perfect functional warm temperature climbing legwear) at about a fiver a pair are a fantastic replacement for my worn out 50p ones from a Jordanian street market (which I only really retired when advised that they were frightening little girls). I put them, along with the headband, in the "look like a knob but don't care" category.

I'm starting to feel that, really, the anti-fashionista fundamentalism of your position is a defacto fashionista posture in itself. But, then again, I have read a lot of articles on philo-semitism in recent days and there does seems to be a long intellectual tradition within Jewish thought at least, of seeing philo-semitism as a similar intellectual construct to anti-semitism. So, perhaps, my new found fascination with your trouser choices could be merely transference.

On glasses, I say let the world come to you. My first glasses (only found I needed them in my late 20s) were immediately described as making me look like a German terrorist (think a Hans Gruber henchman). But within a few years everyone wanted to look like a German terrorist.

In reply to Robert Durran: All this talk of tatty clothing is reminding me of the occasion on which Cuthbert claimed that he failed to score during an evening in the bars of Sardinia as a result of the tattered state of my trousers.

> (In reply to Robert Durran) All this talk of tatty clothing is reminding me of the occasion on which Cuthbert claimed that he failed to score during an evening in the bars of Sardinia as a result of the tattered state of my trousers.

Fantastic! It couldn't possibly have been anything to do with him of course......

In reply to Robert Durran:
>I'd keep the jeans for watching TV or going to the pub or something.

Ironically, I normally take my jeans off when I get home and put my jogging bottoms on. You should try watching TV in your cotton climbing troos, it may be a revelation in comfort over your jeans! Anyway who are you posing to in those jeans when watching TV?

> (In reply to Robert Durran)
> >I'd keep the jeans for watching TV or going to the pub or something.
>
> Ironically, I normally take my jeans off when I get home and put my jogging bottoms on.

When I get home I take off my work trousers and put on some very oancient work trousers that I don't mind wiping grubby hands on, dropping food onto, eating off etc

> You should try watching TV in your cotton climbing troos, it may be a revelation in comfort over your jeans! Anyway who are you posing to in those jeans when watching TV?

I'm not posing to anyone. They're just cheap and comfortable enough to sit still in. Actually I quite often stretch or do shoulder exercises while watching TV; I then wear something offering better freedom of movement.

In reply to Robert Durran: Actually it's possible that I did him a favour. I remember a friendly Milanese who stayed in the same accommodation warning us that it was not unknown for the locals to come after outsiders who chased after their daughters with a shotgun.

> (In reply to Robert Durran) Actually it's possible that I did him a favour. I remember a friendly Milanese who stayed in the same accommodation warning us that it was not unknown for the locals to come after outsiders who chased after their daughters with a shotgun.

What a pity though. The image of Cuthbert, with his £200 designer jeans round his ankles, being chased through the streets of Cala Gonone my an angry Italian with a shotgun is absolutely marvellous.

> (In reply to neil the weak)
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> What a lovely image! I had an immediate urge to hit "retweet" on that before realising, duh, wrong 'social network'.

I know. I still remember back when I was new to the Edinburgh area going in to Alien Rock and seeing the full glory of it all. Roberts partner at the time used to climb in a one piece lycra suit too, cut off at mid thigh so they were quite an eyecatching display all in all.